Tuesday, October 13, 2009

First of all, there's the whole wetting-the-towel thing. Tony recommends that you soak your already-damp sweat rag with water from your bottle, which means: (1) your saturated towel will be rendered incapable of soaking up the perspiration that's puddling in your bodily creases and folds, (2) you're going to have to refill your now-depleted water bottle, and (3) you're probably going to spill water all over your mat or living room rug. The alternative, of course, is to keep your towel dry, but it'll be much harder to grip.

Then, there are the actual pull-ups themselves. I have difficulty even throwing the towel up and over the pull-up bar on the first try. And when I try to do a pull-up with one hand gripping the bar and the other one gripping the dripping towel, it feels like my puny forearm muscles are going to rip apart. I have a weak grip (unless I'm giving a handshake, in which case I squeeze extra hard so the recipient will marvel at my manliness and hand strength), so I'm sure I'd struggle with Towel Pull-Ups even if they were my first exercise of the day. But in Back & Biceps, Tony introduces these fuckers a half-hour into the session -- AFTER we've already suffered through three sets of pull-ups (including the obscenely crazy Corn Cob Pull-ups), three sets of various back rows, and six sets of bicep-blasting curls. Bastard.

As you can probably tell, I crashed and burned with Towel Pull-Ups today, managing to crank out only a handful before having to finish up the set with my foot on the washing machine.

On the plus side: With the exception of the aforementioned disaster, I cruised through Back & Biceps without much trouble. It helps that I now know what to expect -- from Twenty Ones to In-Out Hammer Curls. So without having to concentrate on how to perform the moves, I can now focus on more pressing matters, like how Bobby Stephenson needs a haircut, and how Katie the Interior Designer needs to be quiet.